The Blacklist 3x23 Thoughts
Aug. 25th, 2016 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iaria3x23 'Alexander Kirk: Conclusion'
I enjoyed it and the final 10 minutes were great.
• I'd guess that Mr. Kaplan was behind Liz's faked death with the help of Doctor Nick because there wasn't really any other option. What I wasn't sure about was the role Liz and Tom had in it. I thought there was a pretty even chance of Liz knowing what Mr. Kaplan was planning and not but leaning more towards not. After her 'death' I ended up convinced that Tom along with Red was in the dark. So it was a surprise to learn that they all planned it together but I liked that.
• I am complete confused about how exactly we're going to have Liz and Tom on different shows next season. The end of the episode confirmed that they were in the plan together and are still very much in love and want to be together. They have a daughter. He's not going to wander off while they're kidnapped, nor once they're recovered. I can only think of three options: 1) amnesia. He forgets who he was and choses to step away from Liz/Agnes while he tries to figure it out, 2) Tom or Scottie's past/enemies, as hinted at by Red, catches up to him and he decides he needs to keep away to protect them, or 3) they stay together and the relationship is just (mostly) off-screen on both shows. So for example, Liz will ask Red/Harold/whomever to babysit while she and Tom have a night out on The Blacklist, or over on Redemption Tom comes into the office with baby Agnes because Liz is off to Moscow with Red on a case. That could be fine. They could be the mentioned but rarely seen spouse on each other's shows.
• The Red/Mr. Kaplan scenes were amazing. Red was so bereft at Kaplan being the one who betrayed him, him calling her Kate and telling her that she was the last person he would have thought was just so ouch. I loved her response and reasoning - that she was doing what she has always done and was protecting Red from himself.
I am so worried about Mr. Kaplan. I love her. Her relationship with Red is amazing and beside Dembe she is Red's closest friend. So that final scene between them was scary. Red pressing his gun against her face and saying "Kate, what am I going to do with you Kate", wow. She messed up, though she almost got away with it, but she had the best intentions. She wasn't intending to hurt Red (even though she almost destroyed him.) He won't kill her right? This is the thing I am most worried about.
• This episode actually gave me a revelation about Red/Liz. He is so utterly devoted to her and loves her so much, and has been hurt because of that, that I'm at a point here where I need for Liz to start returning that devotion. We've had moments of it, great moments, but then she always backtracks and I'm so tired of that. They can have conflict without making it seem as if Liz thinks he's her enemy. I want things to be on a more even keel between them emotionally.
• I don't think Red will be angry at Liz for even a second for a number of reasons. 1) His devotion/love for her knows no bounds and he will be willing to forgive anything. 2) He has so much self-loathing and guilt that he'd probably find it deserved that she would not only want to be away from him but would let him think her dead. 3) His long hallucination of Katerina shows that he knows exactly the extent a mother will go to save her daughter, and more importantly he understands it. Mostly, I think he's just going to be quietly hurt.
God, poor Red. This has been a really rough couple months for him. Liz was mad at him again and then wouldn't let him see her daughter. Then she died, destroying him. Tom kept Agnes from him. He finds out that Mr. Kaplan has betrayed him by not only secreting Agnes into hiding but helping Liz fake her death. And now Liz (and Agnes) have been kidnapped again. It's been really emotionally devastating and the worst part is that a part of him probably thinks it's deserved. His expression when Kaplan was explaining on the plane was so sad (even she couldn't keep eye contact.) I really hope next season goes better for him because the last half dozen episodes have been far too much hurt to comfort.
• Alexander Kirk is Constantin Rostov! So Red can't know that right? Does he know? But he told Liz her father was dead. Or... okay, that first big secret that was revealed with Liz's memory retrieval was that she killed her father. Red never denied that. If she hadn't actually killed him Red would have said something right? I feel like I need to rewatch some stuff because I can't remember. But I can't see how Red could know. If he knew then that means he lied to Lizzie. But then we had that exchange between them on the phone where Alexander tells Red he should have killed him that time he had a gun in Red's mouth so... either Red knows exactly who he is [and is he perhaps the 'enemy' he mentioned before, and the person who commisioned the painting?] or they've had clashes as Red vs Alexander Kirk and he doesn't know the truth? I have no idea.
• I'm interested to see how the Liz/Kirk relationship plays out. Will she even believe him? Family is super important to Liz so even if she does he kidnapped her daughter and her and I can't see her being fine with that. I hope they don't play it with her firmly on either side, I want to see her confused and torn on how she feels about the situation.
On his side when he told her that he was her father I thought there was some definite emotion there. The blood transfusion hints that Alexander perhaps needs Liz/Agnes because of some genetic condition but if he only needed a genetic match then he could have had another child for that purpose, you'd think? I honestly think it's more about getting Liz back. We know that when Liz was a child he stole her from Katerina and tried to hide away with her.
• Ressler is going to be so goddamn pissed off at Liz. Poor Ressler. As soon as he put his gun down I knew it was going to cause a huge moral/psychological issue for him. The fact that Lizzie is actually alive, that he was willing to cross so far over the line of his own dearly held beliefs for her, to avenger her, and it ended up not even being real, is going hurt him even more. This is not going to be something he can just get past. I can see him nursing this anger for quite awhile all while struggling with who he is now.
• With the others there is going to be a lot of hurt over Liz's choice of course, for Aram especially, but I also feel like Samar and Harold are going to be able to see past their hurt quicker and understand the reason Liz made the choice she did. Samar in particular is really pragmatic. Harold has also been crossing dearly held lines and while it's hurt him I think he's further along than Ressler, has made the bigger ones earlier in the show, so this big one won't hurt him as much as Ressler and he'll be able to more past it quicker. Aram will be so hurt but at the same time he's such a sweetheart and he loves Liz so I feel like one heartfelt talk will be enough for him to forgive Liz. Or that's how I see things playing out with the Taskforce.
• That scene with Tom choking the guy to death while sharing a long stare with Agnes was a great dark little moment. Liz and Tom have been so focused on having a normal life, on giving Agnes a normal life, but they aren't normal people and they're never going to be able to do that and I think in that moment Tom was realising that.
• I like that Red called Ressler from the plane to let them all know that Liz was alive.
• The tanker switch was a fun little caper.
• "Trust me, I want him as badly as you." - Ressler. Uh. Yeah, I don't think so Ressler.
• I love that Red's sniper didn't move away (or even flinch) when Ressler pulled his gun and didn't leave until Red gave permission. I love when we see the loyalty Red inspires. I did find it surprising that Red was going to let someone else kill Kirk. I would have been so sure that it was something he'd have wanted to do himself.
• I'm hoping we get a new shake up of the status quo next season. The whole on the run situation at the beginning of the season was fun and I don't really want to go back to the Taskforce after Liz is rescued.
I enjoyed it and the final 10 minutes were great.
• I'd guess that Mr. Kaplan was behind Liz's faked death with the help of Doctor Nick because there wasn't really any other option. What I wasn't sure about was the role Liz and Tom had in it. I thought there was a pretty even chance of Liz knowing what Mr. Kaplan was planning and not but leaning more towards not. After her 'death' I ended up convinced that Tom along with Red was in the dark. So it was a surprise to learn that they all planned it together but I liked that.
• I am complete confused about how exactly we're going to have Liz and Tom on different shows next season. The end of the episode confirmed that they were in the plan together and are still very much in love and want to be together. They have a daughter. He's not going to wander off while they're kidnapped, nor once they're recovered. I can only think of three options: 1) amnesia. He forgets who he was and choses to step away from Liz/Agnes while he tries to figure it out, 2) Tom or Scottie's past/enemies, as hinted at by Red, catches up to him and he decides he needs to keep away to protect them, or 3) they stay together and the relationship is just (mostly) off-screen on both shows. So for example, Liz will ask Red/Harold/whomever to babysit while she and Tom have a night out on The Blacklist, or over on Redemption Tom comes into the office with baby Agnes because Liz is off to Moscow with Red on a case. That could be fine. They could be the mentioned but rarely seen spouse on each other's shows.
• The Red/Mr. Kaplan scenes were amazing. Red was so bereft at Kaplan being the one who betrayed him, him calling her Kate and telling her that she was the last person he would have thought was just so ouch. I loved her response and reasoning - that she was doing what she has always done and was protecting Red from himself.
I am so worried about Mr. Kaplan. I love her. Her relationship with Red is amazing and beside Dembe she is Red's closest friend. So that final scene between them was scary. Red pressing his gun against her face and saying "Kate, what am I going to do with you Kate", wow. She messed up, though she almost got away with it, but she had the best intentions. She wasn't intending to hurt Red (even though she almost destroyed him.) He won't kill her right? This is the thing I am most worried about.
• This episode actually gave me a revelation about Red/Liz. He is so utterly devoted to her and loves her so much, and has been hurt because of that, that I'm at a point here where I need for Liz to start returning that devotion. We've had moments of it, great moments, but then she always backtracks and I'm so tired of that. They can have conflict without making it seem as if Liz thinks he's her enemy. I want things to be on a more even keel between them emotionally.
• I don't think Red will be angry at Liz for even a second for a number of reasons. 1) His devotion/love for her knows no bounds and he will be willing to forgive anything. 2) He has so much self-loathing and guilt that he'd probably find it deserved that she would not only want to be away from him but would let him think her dead. 3) His long hallucination of Katerina shows that he knows exactly the extent a mother will go to save her daughter, and more importantly he understands it. Mostly, I think he's just going to be quietly hurt.
God, poor Red. This has been a really rough couple months for him. Liz was mad at him again and then wouldn't let him see her daughter. Then she died, destroying him. Tom kept Agnes from him. He finds out that Mr. Kaplan has betrayed him by not only secreting Agnes into hiding but helping Liz fake her death. And now Liz (and Agnes) have been kidnapped again. It's been really emotionally devastating and the worst part is that a part of him probably thinks it's deserved. His expression when Kaplan was explaining on the plane was so sad (even she couldn't keep eye contact.) I really hope next season goes better for him because the last half dozen episodes have been far too much hurt to comfort.
• Alexander Kirk is Constantin Rostov! So Red can't know that right? Does he know? But he told Liz her father was dead. Or... okay, that first big secret that was revealed with Liz's memory retrieval was that she killed her father. Red never denied that. If she hadn't actually killed him Red would have said something right? I feel like I need to rewatch some stuff because I can't remember. But I can't see how Red could know. If he knew then that means he lied to Lizzie. But then we had that exchange between them on the phone where Alexander tells Red he should have killed him that time he had a gun in Red's mouth so... either Red knows exactly who he is [and is he perhaps the 'enemy' he mentioned before, and the person who commisioned the painting?] or they've had clashes as Red vs Alexander Kirk and he doesn't know the truth? I have no idea.
• I'm interested to see how the Liz/Kirk relationship plays out. Will she even believe him? Family is super important to Liz so even if she does he kidnapped her daughter and her and I can't see her being fine with that. I hope they don't play it with her firmly on either side, I want to see her confused and torn on how she feels about the situation.
On his side when he told her that he was her father I thought there was some definite emotion there. The blood transfusion hints that Alexander perhaps needs Liz/Agnes because of some genetic condition but if he only needed a genetic match then he could have had another child for that purpose, you'd think? I honestly think it's more about getting Liz back. We know that when Liz was a child he stole her from Katerina and tried to hide away with her.
• Ressler is going to be so goddamn pissed off at Liz. Poor Ressler. As soon as he put his gun down I knew it was going to cause a huge moral/psychological issue for him. The fact that Lizzie is actually alive, that he was willing to cross so far over the line of his own dearly held beliefs for her, to avenger her, and it ended up not even being real, is going hurt him even more. This is not going to be something he can just get past. I can see him nursing this anger for quite awhile all while struggling with who he is now.
• With the others there is going to be a lot of hurt over Liz's choice of course, for Aram especially, but I also feel like Samar and Harold are going to be able to see past their hurt quicker and understand the reason Liz made the choice she did. Samar in particular is really pragmatic. Harold has also been crossing dearly held lines and while it's hurt him I think he's further along than Ressler, has made the bigger ones earlier in the show, so this big one won't hurt him as much as Ressler and he'll be able to more past it quicker. Aram will be so hurt but at the same time he's such a sweetheart and he loves Liz so I feel like one heartfelt talk will be enough for him to forgive Liz. Or that's how I see things playing out with the Taskforce.
• That scene with Tom choking the guy to death while sharing a long stare with Agnes was a great dark little moment. Liz and Tom have been so focused on having a normal life, on giving Agnes a normal life, but they aren't normal people and they're never going to be able to do that and I think in that moment Tom was realising that.
• I like that Red called Ressler from the plane to let them all know that Liz was alive.
• The tanker switch was a fun little caper.
• "Trust me, I want him as badly as you." - Ressler. Uh. Yeah, I don't think so Ressler.
• I love that Red's sniper didn't move away (or even flinch) when Ressler pulled his gun and didn't leave until Red gave permission. I love when we see the loyalty Red inspires. I did find it surprising that Red was going to let someone else kill Kirk. I would have been so sure that it was something he'd have wanted to do himself.
• I'm hoping we get a new shake up of the status quo next season. The whole on the run situation at the beginning of the season was fun and I don't really want to go back to the Taskforce after Liz is rescued.
